Delilah loves the comfort of the happy ending, and knowing there will be no surprises.
Until she gets the biggest surprise of all, when Prince Oliver looks out from the page and speaks to her.
Now Delilah must decide: will she do as Oliver asks, and help him to break ot of the book? Or is this her chance to break into happily ever after?
After discovering the book I found the plot very interesting, it seemed for me different than any other YA romance book I've read before. It's told in alternating character points of view and with the fairy tale retold between chapters. Illustrations throughout the book and coloured writing however reveal that this book is geared towards more early teens.
I love a good romance story and almost always in a romance story is conflict and trouble; but one of the characters being a fictional character trapped in a book, is a big heap of trouble. From the start you're thrown into their separate worlds: Oliver's hate for being trapped and Delilah's hate for being stuck in high school - where everybody hates her.
Oliver has friends that are as close as family, and a good life. But despite everything he isn't happy. What I like about the alternating character chapters is that you get to understand more about Oliver's hobbies, sometimes in these sort of books you only see the girls opinion of the boy and discover no personality to him. We also know that Oliver is very good looking (and to be a Prince in a fairy tale he has to be) but he is also caring and quite clever. Since he has to try so many ways to get out of the book.
Delilah has a few people that care about her: her mum and best friend Jules. Everybody thinks she has gone crazy, and with her reputation falling her mum becomes more disappointed in her. All we really know about Delilah is that she enjoys reading and is a good girl in school, for me her personality could of been developed more, as it seemed to cover the same points (her obsession with the book, unpopularity at school...).
The romance between Oliver and Delilah was sweet, and understandable, and caring, but I felt some passion was missing - only slightly because of their instant love. Occasionally I would wonder if Delilah had fallen for the fairy tale Prince Oliver. Other characters though were developed more deeply - especially from the fairy tale book - and most characters all showed a hidden side: Jules through her scary outfits was a caring friend, Rapscullio being the bad guy and his love of art, and Captain Crabbe being an evil pirate whilst loving dentistry; showing everybody is more than what you see.
Overall this book seemed a bit young for me but had a very cute romance. The beautiful drawings were very good and fitted the fairy tale theme, and help create a feeling of reality for the fairy tale. The ending was different to what I expected but was slightly unrealistic (even though characters coming alive is unrealistic) I am happy with the ending though as it answered all questions and problems that could have occured.
3 stars out of 5
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